Long term variations of water exchange through gibraltar strait based on sea level observations of Ceuta and Gibraltar : building information for modeling thermohaline structure in the Mediterranean Basin

الملخص EN

This paper studies the exchange through the Gibraltar Strait, which connects the Mediterranean Sea and Atlantic Ocean, over a 53 years period.

The modeling mainly depends on geodetically corrected sea level difference across Gibraltar Strait.

Water exchange through Gibraltar Strait is one of the main factors affecting the difference between Mediterranean Sea and Atlantic Ocean temperature, salinity and sea level.

Vertical structure of temperature and salinity of Western and Eastern Mediterranean basins is simulated using the equation solver PROBE and available meteorological and hydrological data for the period 1958 to 2010 during different geodetically corrected scenarios.

Direct comparison between modeled and observations of temperature and salinity is used to geodetically correct sea level datum across the strait.

Finally, this paper gives an image of Mediterranean thermohaline structure during different scenario of water exchange through Gibraltar Strait.

Sea level difference across the Gibraltar Strait ranges from 1 to 3.5 cm while the difference along the strait is about 0.5cm.

Submaximal exchange has dominated the exchange through Gibraltar Strait.

Around 7% of the year the surface flow through Gibraltar Strait is reversed to outflow water from Mediterranean to Atlantic.

The simple PROBE-MED model can realistically describe the general features of the Mediterranean Sea.